Samsung Series 7 AIO 23 pictures and hands-on

Oddly, the most interesting Windows 8 machines at the launch event weren't the laptops, but the all-in-one PCs. Consistently large crowds gathered to look at these machines, and we can see why.

Massive screens with bright colours really suit Windows 8, and with the addition of a more sensible screen angle than most monitors, the all-in-one machines seem, somehow, to suit touch interaction more.

There was also some interest garnered as these machines are being pushed as media devices. Hulu Plus and Netflix were demoed on all of the all-in-one machines, and impressive picture quality and the new Modern apps meant that we found ourselves understanding the appeal. Of course, with the new iMac coming soon, these machines all look quite fat, but they do add extra features, like optical drives and in the case of HP, a TV tuner.

But we liked the Samsung package. It seemed very snappy and responsive to us, which is all-important. And we love the styling. It takes cues from some of the high-end Samsung TVs, so it's a stylish machine for families who want a decent desktop for everyone to use, but don't want a massive black box in the corner of their room making a racket and looking ghastly.

Keyboard and mouse were, as you'd expect, wireless, and looked great. We didn' get much playing time to type in Word, but this would make just as useful a work PC as it would a home media player.

So the Series 7 AIO 23 makes the most sense to us of any desktop Windows 8 machine. The OS looks good, works well and is a great advert for Windows 8. Microsoft must be very pleased indeed.